PERSONAL STORies from india
MR. SINGRAI MURMU
(in the centre of the top photo; from VILLAGE MAHESHPUR.)
“Pardon me for speaking in Santhali. I do not know Hindi. My parents were illiterate and never sent me to any school. I should not blame them. I am doing the same by not sending my children to a school. My wife, also, is illiterate. We are one of the 25 families in this village, called Maheshpur.
We all are farmers. Yes, we face a lot of problems. Yes, one of the big problems was to get good drinking water all year round. Now it is solved somewhat because of the gift of a borewell we have received from you. With me the whole village people thank you and those who have blessed us with this source of water. We thank Father McGauley and the Nothing Wasted Group and we in the village speak about them to with love and gratitude.
Till we got this borewell, we had to depend on the small rivulet near the hill for all our water needs. You have seen it is about half a mile from the village. Our women had to go there early mornings and late in the evenings to fetch water for cooking and drinking. Now we can get the all important water any time, so easily.
Our loving greetings and gratitude to the Father McGauley Prayer Group. God bless you, all of you in America for doing so much for us.”
MRS. CHAMI SOREN
(drawing water in the top photo; from VILLAGE HARIAN)
I am Chami Soren. My house is on our right. I am a widow. I live with my daughter-in-law, who is a widow herself, and my granddaughter. I lost my husband due to TB sickness and my son due to malaria. I knew this was mainly because we were mostly using water from the pond in the village. We had no other source of water close by for the needs of people and animals. There is a small well in the fields about one mile. Because it is in the valley close to the hills, it has water all year round. You can imagine the difficulty our village faced, the village with 44 families. We all got drinking water from there. I had to wake up with the first cock crow and take five pitchers to collect water for the day. Carrying those pitchers for so long a distance, and the fear of meeting wild animals, made me feel miserable.
This bore well! You can see what a blessing it is for me, and for the villagers. Now my bad back ache is very much over. I can feel that my granddaughter is safe. I was always afraid of some evil harm falling on her when she went to fetch water so far away. The village women feel the same about themselves and their daughters the same way. Like me, the villagers are very happy that you have got us this big help. Of course, our wish is that the load on this ONE bore well be lessened with the blessings of Father McGauley, by having more bore wells!
Our thanks, very especially of me and my miserable family, to the Group for giving us this bore well. This is not only giving us clean and safe drinking water, but also saving us from malaria and TB.
God bless you all. We send our love to you.
